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That's lovely, I like that. A similar image might be of the Taelons in their natural "energyblush" form, although somewhat more solid.

The first descriptions of them in Rough Beasts of Empire described their colours as only ranging from light green through yellow and orange to bright red. But then The Struggle Within introduced a blue one, and Brinkmanship browns and silvers. So it appears that there are many more colours than we originally thought. So the initial description was not necessarily wrong, just incomplete, only referring to the government echelons.

And it seems that the duller colours correspond to the lower and less prestigious echelons, and the brighter ones to the higher echelons, and even that certain colours specifically match certain jobs (it is said that guards/policemen come in silver). That makes it clear at first sight what echelon a citizen belongs to, with no possibility of mistaking them, and nearly impossible for anyone to move between the levels. All of which perfectly suits their cultural imperative to have everyone in their place and organised and strictly labelled and categorized. It seem likely therefore that the colours are deliberately built in with precisely that purpose. If you're a cleaner, you're brown, and that's that.

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TrekLit/DS9-R fans! Want a different vision of the Ascendant conflict and the DS9 time gap?

One thing I mentioned in the Brinkmanship review thread was that I think it's interesting to consider the Tzenkethi in comparison to the Breen. Both are Typhon Pact nations explored in the novels through a vehicle of espionage. One of the two societies, the Breen, insists on citizens hiding their biology, consigning their genetic heritage to the shadows while random, noncontrollable talents define who you are. They accept a sea of variants behind an outward conformity, celebrating diversity but being morally opposed to exhibiting it openly, and its people are all walking around in identical full-body suits. Yet this society is difficult to infiltrate. The other society, the Tzenkethi, is by contrast ordered and structured entirely on the basis of biology, where your genetic heritage determines who you are, where a form of diversity is celebrated precisely because all the myriad variants know their function and place, and where they advertise that function - and thus their biology - openly through visual cues, like the accepted range of their luminescence. Yet this society is relatively easy to insert operatives into.

There's so much ground here for consideration; I hope future stories place the Breen and Tzenkethi in context with one another.

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We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, and the best of us is washed away.

I havent ready any books since the Destiny trilogy 3 years ago. After reading this thread I read Zero sum game last week and it was an amazing fast pasted thriller. Very different to most Trek novels I have read. I loved the glimpse into Breen society.

I am now reading rough beasts of the Empire. Its is totally different style of writing and I'm not enjoying it at all. The best bits are revealing the Tzenkthi's biology and their society. The story so far seems very lame and not told well.

I started reading a chapter with Sisko onboard the Oginawa(which is set before DS9- but it doesn't mention this). It had me very confused. Thank god for memory Beta to put me back on track